Improvement in hydrants



UNITEDl STATES JAMES OLD, OF PITTSBURG, PENNSYLVANIA.

IMPROVEMENT IN HYDRANTS.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 55,893, dated J une 26,1866.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, J AMES OLD, of the city of Pittsburg, in the countyof Allegheny and State of Pennsylvania, have invented a new and usefulImprovement in Hydrants and Fire-Plugs and I do hereby declare thefollowing to be a full, clear, and exact description thereof, referencebeing had to the accompanying drawings, forming part of thisspecification, in which- Figure l is a vertical section of avalve-hydrant constructed with my improvements, excepting the lowervalve. Fig. 2 is avertical section of the same hydrant, (at right anglesto the plane of section in Fig. 1,) showing the upper parts all attachedto a removable slide which forms a part of the hydrant-box. Fig. 3 is asection of the lower part of a stop-cock hydrant constructed with myimprovements, including a lower valve. Fig. 4 is a section ofthe lowerpart of a hydrant, showing the cone-piece raised from its seat in thebasepiece and the lower valve closed.

In the several figures like letters of reference denote similar parts.

My improvements relate toV hydrants and rire-plugs used for letting onor shutting off the flow of water from pipes, through which it issupplied from a reservoir or head, so as to escape with more or lessforce or pressure whenever a valve or cock is opened so as to give it afree passage.

Hydrants and hre-plugs, especially when placed out of doors and exposedto rough usage, are very liable to get out of order and need repairing.When this is the ease it is necessary oftentimes to take them out of theground, and as they are usually constructed they have to be dug up andtheir connection with the underground supply-pipe has to be severed bycutting the pipe or unscrewin g a joint. In order to remove a hydrantfor repairs it is also requisite to shut off the water lfrom thesupply-pipe, which is very frequentlyV connected with other hydrants,which are thereby cut oii" from the. water for a time. Hydrants are alsoliable to be broken by the violent reaction of the water where thepressure is great, caused bythe sudden or simultaneous closing of theiow ofwater through other hydrants in the neighborhood.

These inconveniences and some others which I shall name hereinafter Ipropose to remedy by my improvements, which I shall proceed to describe.

In the accompanying drawings, Figs. l and 2 represent avalve-hydrant-that is, the flow of the water from the supply-pipe isstopped by the downward pressure of' a valve.

In Fig. l, a is the box which contains the hydrant, and which may bemade. of wood,

iron, or other material. In front of the box is a slide or shutter, b,forming one side of the box, which, when the top or cap cis raised, maybe slid upward and removed from the box.

As will be seen by examining Fig. l, all the operative parts of thehydrant-that is, all above the supply-pipe d--are attached to the slideb, and are removed from the box when it is taken away. rPhe connectionbetween the valve-box e of the hydrant and the supplypipe d is made bythe cone-piece j', which is a tube tapered at both ends, the joint beingconical and ground in, so as to make it watertight. It' there is novalve below the conepiece f, asin Fig. l, the lower end of thecone-piece may be made fast to the supplypipe by soldering 0r otherwise,and be fastened to the base or lower part of the box of the hydrant, sothat the upper end of' the cone-piece may be held in the proper positionto connect with the valve-box c when the slide bis returned to itsplace. It is also necessary that the cone-piece should be firmlysupported by the base-piece of the hydrant-box, because the valve gwhich shuts ott` the water presses down upon it. The valve g whichcloses the mouth of the cone-piece f, as in Figs. l and 2, is inclosedin its box e, and is operated by the valve-rod h, which is pivoted at t'to the handle or lever k, which has its fulcrum at o, outside of thepivot t'. The effect of this arrangement is that the hydrant is closedby raising the lever 7c and opened by depressing the handle or lever,which is the reverse of the ordinary mode of operating hydrants. Theshort arm of the lever k is extended beyond the pivot t' of the rod lt,and a weight, w, is hung on it suliicient to keep the valve g down andprevent the liow ofwater at the ordinary pressure to which the hydrantis subjected. This arrangement has the advantage of making the hydrantself-closing, and also allows the valve g to rise whenever anyextraordinary or sudden pressure of water occurs in the supply-pipe d,which relieves the strain and will frequently prevent the bursting ofthe pipe or damage to the hydrant.

Z is the How-pipe of the hydrant, through which the water passeswhenever the valve g is raised.

The valve-box e is furnished with the usual aperture a above the valveg, through which the water, which would otherwise stand in the How-pipeZ, escapes when the valve is closed, s0 that the momentary rising of thevalve g, caused by the reaction ofthe water in the supply-pipe, will notnecessarily nor usually result in a flow of water out ofthe spout m.

In the hydrant constructedI as I have described, and as shown in Fi. 1,it is manifest that if the slide b and hydrant attached thereto wereremoved from the box a without first shutting oft' the water from thesupply-pipe d the water would iow freely therefrom. In order to preventthe necessity of shutting off the water when the hydrant has to beremoved, I place a valve between the cone-piece and the supply-pipe,which shuts automatically as soon as the cone-piece is raised from itsseat, and lthus closes the orifice of the supply-pipe.

This arrangement is shown in Figs. 3 and 4, Fig. 3 showing the hydrantin place and the valve open, and Fig. 4 showing the hydrant slightlyraised from its place and the valve closed. Fig. 4 shows the applicationof the valve to a valve-hydrant, such as Fig. 1, while Fig. 3 shows theapplication of my invention (so far as it is applicable) to a stopcockhydrant.

In Fig. 3, p is the stop-cock, which is operated in the usual way by akey, q. Two cone-pieces, r and s, are used, one, r, connecting theiow-pipe lwith the cock p, and the other, s, being seated with aground-in joint in the valve-box t of the lower or check valve, u. Thecone-pieces and all other parts ot' the hydrantl excepting thecheck-valve a and its valve-box t are attached to the slide or shutterb, so that when the slide b is removed it carries with it the hydrant,the cone-piece s risingout of its seat on top of the check-valve box t.

The valve u and valve-box t are alike in construction and operation,whether applied to a stop-cock hydrant, as in Fig. 3, or to avalve-hydrant,.as in Fig. 4t. The valve u consists of a circularmetallic disk, which is forced up by the upward pressure of the waterthrough the supply-pipe againstits seat, and thus prevents the upwardpassage of water beyond that point. This disk has three or four pins, o,on its upper side, which enter the conical tube w, in which thecone-piece s, Fig. 3, or f, Fig. 4, is seated. 1t has also three or fourpins, x, projecting downward from its lower surface, which also extendbeyond the periphery of the valve-disk, so as to touch the sides of thevalve-box t. These pins o and serve to keep the disk u fromtilting orgetting out of place, and the lower pins, or, prevent the valve u fromfalling so low in the valve-box as to close the orifice of thesupply-pipe. The upper pins, c, extend up into the conical seat of theconepiece s or f, as before stated, the object of which is, that whenthe cone-piece is pressed down into its seat y (as it always is when thehydrant is in place) the lower extremity of the cone-piece j' or s willcome in contact with the tops ot' the pins c o, and, pushing them down,depress the valve u, leaving a free passage for the water from thesupply-pipe up through the cone-piece.

The diameter of the valve-disk a bein gless than that of the valve-boxt, the water finds its way all around it; but as soon as the conepieceis raised, as in FiO'. 4., the valve a is free to rise, which it isforced to do by the upward pressure of the water, and at once closes thepassage and prevents any escape oi' water from the supply or servicepipe.

In applying my improvement to fire-plugs which are operated to let onthe water by screwing downward a conical plug which is seated in atapering aperture having its smaller diameter uppermost, it may be founddesirable to have the check-valve always closed', excepting when wateris to be drawn from the pluU. In this case, instead of making theconepiece which connects the iire-plug with the water-supply pipe toforce and keep open the check-valve in the manner shown in Fig. 3, Iextend from the under side oi' the workingvalve a rod downward towardthe check-valve, so as nearly to touch it when the workingvalve isclosed, which rod, as soon as the working-valve is opened, will depressthe checkvalve and allow the water to pass up from the supply-pipe intoand through the rire-plug.

I-Iaving thus described myimprovement in hydrants and fire-plugs, what Iclaim as my invention, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is-

1. Connecting the operative parts of the hydrant to the supply orservice pipe at a point below the working valve or cock, by means of ajoint, in such manner that the hydrant' may be removed and separatedfrom the supplyor service pipe without cutting any pipe -or unscrewingany joint, substantially as hereinbefore described.

2. So constructing the hydrant, substantially as hereinbefore described,as that all the operative parts above and including the working cock orvalve are connected together as one piece, and may be attached to aremovable slide either placed in or forming part of the hydrant-box,substantially as and for the purposes hereinbefore set forth.

3. The check-valve, placed below the working-valve of a fire-plug orhydrant, so con structed and arranged as that the valve will shutwhenever the hydrant or Iireplug is ree moved from the supply or servicepipe, and In testimonywhereof, the said JAMES OLD7 that it shall beopened to allow of the passage have hereunto set my hand.

of Water from the supply-pipe, either `loy the opening of theWorking-valve Whenever the JAMEb OLD' fire-plug is used, or be kept openby the plug Witnesses:

or hydrant when it is placed in connection W. BAKEWELL,

with the supply or service pipe, substantially A. S. NICHOLSON. V

as hereinbefore described.

